[vintermann]

Counting start-ups isn't trivial. At least if you also want to count something meaningful. Estonia has a lot of finance start-ups due to a friendly regulatory climate for that sort of thing, but do they really count?

Also, for things that aren't purely nebulous (not just thinking of finance here) you can't just go out and start anything anywhere. If you start something in Norway you'd better not rely on cheap local labour, but you might gamble on cheap electricity. Saudi Arabia just has no comparative advantages apart from oil and Hajj tourism.

An actual advantage that I think Sweden has, is the combination of a highly educated and highly creative workforce. Your stereotypical Swedish engineer isn't just educated for economic reasons (because if it was about money, he could have done a dozen easier things anyway). He also has some serious creative ambition. If you are rich enough to pay him and clever enough to steer those ambitions down a profitable path, you can make a ton of money on people like that.

[RestlessMind]

> Counting start-ups isn't trivial. At least if you also want to count something meaningful.

That's why I counted both startups and funding received by those startups.